Jan 11, 2014

Tasting notes: The Lorax Pale Ale

This was the 3rd beer I brewed for Adam's wedding but the first I've gotten around to writing tasting notes for. It was brewed on November 30th and bottled on December 14th.Aroma: Pine and passionfruit greet you at the door. There's a little dankness with them.Appearance: Very nice clear gold colour with a couple of fingers of clean white head that diminishes slowly. Lots of happy little bubbles shooting to the surface.Flavour: Nice maltiness that supports the hops but doesn't take away from them. With the hops there's a herbal quality there along with more of the same hop flavours as in the aroma.Mouthfeel: Carbonation on the high side of medium and moderate bitterness for a pale ale.

The kind of quality photography I bringevery time

It's not high praise but this beer more or less does what it's meant to do. There are no fermentation-related off flavours or off flavours of any kind that I can detect. It's clean, the malt is good and the hops are decent. The problem is that the hops aren't exactly what I'm after. It's easy to find a good hop combination, it's much harder to find a great one. I have a hunch that the Simcoe I used was past it's prime. The overwhelming impression I get with the hop aroma and flavour is of Columbus. There's some Simcoe in there but it's not as assertive as it should have been. And the result is nice, but it's not stellar.

I'm pleased with the malt character. The Golden Promise and biscuit malt work really well together. It's not very prominent but it does let you know that it's there. I'm very happy with what Bill, my malt guy in Launceston, has produced. I hope he goes all the way and starts his own malting business one day.

It's a nice beer. A pleasant beer. At a wedding in a garden on a Summer's day, it's not far off from where it should be. But I'm drinking this in my bedroom on my own and it's a setting for a more critical assessment. If I bought this at a bottleshop I'd enjoy it but not be impressed by it.

Next time: Use hops that are absolutely fresh! Refine the combination or work out a different combination of hops in pursuit of that winning blend.